Men's Basketball Closes 2022 By Upsetting #17 Mt. San Jacinto

The Pasadena City College men's basketball team continues to make strides as a tough team to face. The Lancers won their fourth straight game, surprising host and state #17-ranked Mt. San Jacinto, 84-72, on Friday night. PCC closes the year 2022 with a 10-6 record under first-year head coach Ryan Frazer as the program is off to its best start to a season in nine years.

The Lancers, who once again benched four players due to disciplinary reasons from two weeks ago, went with an ironman crew that saw three starters play 35 or more of the 40 minutes and one other reach 32 minutes. The endurance group came up with big results including season-high scoring performances by frosh guard Shant Chenorhavorian with 26 points and freshman wing Myles Watkins tying his high on 19 points. 

Chenorhavorian put on a shooting clinic in the second half as he netted all three of his field goal attempts--three 3-point bombs while draining 9-for-10 from the free throw line for 18 points over the final 20 minutes. The team as a whole had a hot shooting second half, making 13 of 18 from the floor (72.2 percent), 5 of 6 from beyond the arc (83.3 percent) and 16 of 21 from the charity stripe (76.2 percent).

Unranked on the state top 30 poll, PCC led just 40-39 early in the second half, but produced a 15-0 scoring run to run away from Mt. San Jacinto, who were a solid 10-2 coming into the non-conference contest. Chenorhavorian started the spurt with a trey and Watkins capped it on a putback that gave the Lancers a 55-39 advantage with just under 12 minutes left. The Eagles never threatened the rest of the way.

Chenorhavorian drilled five 3s overall and added six rebounds and four assists. Watkins pulled down 12 rebounds. Sophomore guard Rande Harper contributed 17 points while Jonathan Tchengang provided leadership and sound defense with 11 rebounds, six assists on an off-scoring night for the transfer wing who tallied just three points. Watkins, Tchengang and Harper never left the floor in the second half while Chenorhavorian played all but three minutes. 

Off the bench, Nurridin Abdur-Rahmann delivered 13 points and five rebounds while Caleb Gerber sank a pair of 3-pointers for six points. 

The last time a Lancers team won 10 games by the end of December was in 2013 when the '13-14 PCC squad went 12-4 on its way to a 21-10 season. Pasadena has victories over two current top 20 teams in MSJC and #20 Saddleback. All of the squad's losses are v. Top 22 teams in #7 Citrus, #12 Redwoods, #15 Ventura (twice), #19 Riverside City, and #22 Cerritos, a team that was rated #1 in the state at the time they played each other. 

PCC begins the new year with a Wednesday, Jan. 4, South Coast Conference crossover game at Los Angeles Southwest. Tip-off is 7 p.m.